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If I have a philosophy of life, it’s about making your own way. Going out and getting it done. Not expecting it to be done for you.

—Janet Jackson

Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own.

—Jean Toomer

When I was young, stories were a big thing in our house. Sometimes the stories came from books, but generally the stories centered around my parents’ experiences as young children. These stories allowed me to build powerful images of myself as a young girl and as a woman.

—Julia A. Boyd

If you respect yourself, it’s easier to respect other people.

—John Singleton

I was an odd child; I was extremely introverted, very quiet. And my mother would allow that because she was also an introvert; we were kindred spirits.

—Gloria Naylor

I’ve heard some of the young people laugh about slave love, but they should envy the love which kept mother and father so close together in life, and even held them in death.

—Alonzo Haywood, former enslaved African-American